Decius Junius Brutus
Information on the PC character, Decius Junius Brutus. Age: 31 Class: Plebeian Profile: Old School Plebeian. You can trace your line back to Rome's beginnigs as well, and may even be considered one of the Famous Families, but you were definitely on the other side of the fence during the Struggle of the Orders. You have praetors among your ancestors, and probably a consul as well. Practical Aspects: Plebeian. Medium starting gravitas, slightly above average auctoritas, decent land holdings, moderate bank account, and a nice house in the Aventine or Palantine. Influence: 11 G, 15 A Domus: Villa on the Palatine, 87.500 d Special Characteristics: Well-rounded Roman (1 G, 1 A, 1 Military experience), Slumlord (- 1 A, Insula), Rustic Uncle (+ 1.200 Iugera, + 5.000 d) Estates: 3.000 Iugera (Italia) Money: 155.000 d ''Position is a ''please copy your starting profile, including your characteristics, from the Starting_Profile page, put more details below in the biography section Current Job: None For more information about 's status, see the Status page ''The Junius Brutus Family Decius hails from that illustrious family, the Junius Brutuses, who are credited to be among the cornerstones of the Republic. In addition to his extended family's achievements, Decius's own family atrium displays three different Consular masks: the first is of the triumphator Brutus Callaicus who subdued the Lusitanians and Gallaecians; the second is of Brutus Scaeva, who firstly introduced the gladiatorial games to Romans; and the third is of Decimus Brutus, who was the first of the family to achieve a consulship from as early as 325 BC. Decius Brutus was born in 108 BC, the year before Caius Marius scored his first consulship. His father was Decimus Brutus who had been Pro-Praetor of Illyricum and a close personal friend and dinner-mate of Lucius Cornelius Cinna, while the mother was Sempronia of the Tudetanus branch. The family also sired a younger brother for Decius in 84 BC, named Decimus, who was later adopted out to the patrician Aulus Postumius Albinus (ex: this one is the historical Brutus Albinus, one of Caesar's assassins) as well as two younger sisters, Junia and Decima. The Junius Brutuses during the Civil War Sulla's march on Rome caught Decius Junius Brutus during his military duty up North, where he was posted as ''contubernalis to Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo's Eleventh Legion in the city of Placentia. While serving under Pompey Strabo meant that Decius Brutus was far away from the dangers and troubles brewing in the South, he did not avoid troubles all-together. His great-uncle, Marcus Junius Brutus Maior, was also the urban praetor who tried to order Sulla away from Rome and also one of the twenty Marian senators charged with perduellio after Sulla had occupied the city''; and while Marcus Junius managed to flee for Africa unharmed and well in charge of his head, his immediate family were affected by their kinsman's treasonous stain. Decius' father, Decimus, fainted a retreat to the country declaring that he would wait the city to come to its senses; the son himself though, suspected to have Marian inclinations, was forcibly tent-contained by Strabo's men and later placed under house arrest in Placentia. For the remaining part of Sulla's consulship, and in fear of further repercussions, the Junius Brutuses laid low. Once Sulla had left though their sense of alarm ceased, security precautions laxed and Decimus Junius Brutus brought the family back to the city. There, he came to friendly terms with Lucius Cornelius Cinna and Gnaeus Papirius Carbo through his cousin, Marcus Junius Brutus (this one is Brutus' father who was later executed by Pompey Magnus). This friendship showered the Brutuses many honors during Cinna's sypremacy. To the height of junian political clout and in accord to Cinna's policy to aid the Italians with their bid for the citizenship, Marcus Brutus advocated the creation of a new Roman colony in Capua – in effect, the making up of the nucleus by enfranchised Italians and by doing so, making Capua truly a roman city. By this time, Cinna and his consular colleague G. Octavius had come to a rift that would soon devolve to a brutal street-fighting between Octavius' ''aristoi and Cinna's novi homini (his newly enfranchised Italians). Octavius won the contest and exploited his victory to oust Cinna and his supporters, including the Bruti, from the city. Cinna retaliated by raising an army of Italians on the country-side around Rome, a feat that Marcus Brutus the Younger was tasked with and completed admirably. While Marcus Brutus raised an army, Cinna was in secret communications with Gaius Marius who was offered the opportunity to come back from exile with an army raised in Africa; it was thus that Grandfather Brutus re-united with his family while serving as an officer to Marius. Re-taking Rome from Gaius Octavius was a short campaign, stained however from the rampage of Marius' slave army. Leading this slaughter against those who were suspect of Sullan support was Lucius Junius Brutus Damasippus, Cinna's appointed urban praetor for that year; he also was a cousin of Decius Brutus. Despite Brutus Damasippus' earnest efforts to rid the city of Sullan influence, Quintus Sertorius finally influenced Cinna and Carbo to put down the slaves and restore the city to a shambles of peace. It was later that year that Gaius Marius died, aged seventy, and Cinna and Carbo were left to face the troubles of running the state as well as the incoming rage of Lucius Cornelius Sulla. After Marius' death, one of the greatest problems the Republic was facing was the rebellion in Illyria. The Consuls, Cinna and Carbo, decided that a Republican army should be recruited and sent across the Hadriatic with the dual objective of ending the rebellion and then engaging Sulla's five legions in Greece. Cinna took charge of the army and began a forced march to Brindisi; however, being very unpopular with the troops and compounding the offence by harsh marching and discipline, Cinna and his senior legate, grandfather Marcus Brutus, were both stoned dead by the mutinous soldiers some miles off Campus Martius. Once their murder became known, Carbo departed to control the rogue legions while Decimus Junius Brutus, anticipating the worse, took his family away to the country again. His fears were soon to be confirmed. Two years later, Sulla landed in Brindisi with his victorious army – veteran legionaries with high spirits after treading all over Mithridates in the twin battles of Orchomenos. After Norbanus' disaster in Canusium and his subsequent defeat in Capua, the loyalties of other Roman statemen began to waver in favor of Sulla. And when Cornelius Asiagenus' men defected to Sulla, the Famous Families openly declared their support to him. Since the Marian power-base was thinning, Decimus Brutus called for a family meeting to decide on the policy the Junius Brutuses would follow. Brutus Damasippus and Marcus Brutus both decided to oppose Sulla openly by soldiering for Gnaeus Papirius Carbo; Decimus Brutus decided to stay out of the conflict entirely; and the last male of age, Decius Brutus, had only recently been released from Pompey Strabo's house arrest to risk another capture. As it came down to be, Decimus Brutus' decision proved to be the wisest. Carbo finally met Sulla at Clusium where an indecisive battle was fought, only to be defeated later by Metellus Pius. With Carbo defeated, his followers were faced with their fate. Brutus Damasippus and Marcus Brutus were executed by Sulla's enforcer, Gnaeus Pompey, while another Brutus who had continued to resist Sulla committed suicide in Lylibaeum instead of falling to the hands of the 'butcher' Pompey. Having lost so many of their own to the civil war, the Junius Brutuses decided it was best to whether the storm of Sulla's dictatorship rather than continue to oppose it. For the remaining two years of Sulla's reign of terror, the family stayed very silent hoping that the Dictator would not notice them while they waited to see how they could free their country from tyranny. However, and against all expectation, Sulla resigned his office after two years and retired to the country side a privatus; the Republic was allowed to keep going on without his strong arm, so long as his laws were upheld. And then, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, the man of such terror was gone, pressumably due to liver failure. ''Gossip circulating on the Junius Brutuses'' > Once the family estate was estimated in the thousands of iugera spread across Italy but, upon adulthood, Decius Brutus can score a mediocre land of 3,000 iugera - more than half of which were due to inheritance. Word has it that the family sell out most of its estate during Sulla's dictatorship so they could bribe their way out of the proscription lists; the apparent lack of silver plater, wine beakers and many of the family's memorabilia do puzzle visitors. > The family also sired a younger son. The lad in question however was adopted out to Aulus Postumius Albinus in 81 BCE. It is said that Decimus Brutus the father gave up his son to Aulus Albinus under strain of proscription. The fact though that the lad goes on bearing the name Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus hints to where his loyalties lay. > Ever since the beauty Sempronia of the Tudetani married Decimus Junius Brutus there has been plenty talk on her allegedly wanton private life. However, the time of Sulla gave birth to the juiciest gossip of them all; talk has it that Sempronia Tudetani has been whoring herself to save her husband and elder son, Decius, from arrest to a series of Sullan political supporters including (but not limited to!) Quintus Lutatius Catulus, Metellus Pius, Marcus Crassus, Gnaeus Pompey and Lucius Sergius Catilina. > History after Sulla won't be kind to those who opposed him politically or military. One man though may actually have his fair share of sincere account - Lucius Junius Brutus Damasippus. Decius' cousin was Praetor Urbanus when Marius came back to Rome and he was at the head of many executions of Sulla inclined Senators including Marcus Antonius Orator and Crassus Orator & son. Talk has it that Damasippus was executing these men personally and by most gruesome manner even Kid Butcher, Gnaeus Pompeius, would envy! Category:PCs